In current applications, motion of an assembly or substrate along one axis is typically provided by ball bearing slides, or by creating a hole in the assembly and sliding it along a suspended rod or wire. This simple type of motion can be created also by sliding two engaged lengths of reclosable fastener film relative to one another along the rib direction, such as the self-mating fasteners as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,128.
Self-mating fasteners, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,128, comprise a base sheet and a multiplicity of parallel, narrowly spaced, elastically deformable ribs with at least one flange projecting from a major surface of the base sheet. The width and spacing of ribs are chosen so that when the ribbed surface of the fastener is pressed against an identical ribbed surface, the ribs of one surface will be accommodated between the ribs of the other surface, and ribs on the two surfaces can deform and their flanges move past one another to interengage and hold the surfaces together.
Fasteners as described have a number of important advantages. These include convenient engagement at a desired level of pressure or force; resistance to disengagement, especially resistance to peel forces, which combines with low engagement force to provide a wide range of utilities; an advantageous self alignment when fasteners are brought into engagement with one another; high durability adapting the fasteners to repeated use; low manufacturing cost; and low inventory cost, given the need to stock only one product in the case of a self-mating fastener.
In view of the foregoing, one drawback of sliders based on reclosable mating fasteners is that motion is restricted to one direction. What is desired is means to introduce biaxial motion between two substrates using reclosable mating fasteners.